Federal Judge Revises Travel Ban Restrictions

(CN) – The federal judge who temporarily barred implementation of President Donald Trump’s travel ban revised his order on Monday in response to a decision by the Ninth Circuit.

U.S. District Judge Derek Watson’s previous ruling blocked the Trump administration from enacting two sections of Executive Order 13769, which attempted to limit immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries. Under Watson’s amended order, Trump cabinet members can continue to review the procedures of other countries in regard to their vetting of visas and can continue to study the internal mechanisms of the U.S. government’s processes.

“The only portions of the district court’s injunction that were not upheld – and are therefore modified in this new preliminary injunction – concerned internal studies undertaken by the government and whether the president, rather than his cabinet members, should be named directly,” Joshua Wisch, a special assistant to the Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin, said in an interview.

Chin initially brought the case against Trump’s travel ban before Watson in the District of Hawaii federal court.

The revised order still prevents the administration from implementing both the travel ban and the refugee ban.

“Neither change reduces the effectiveness of this injunction against the travel and refugee bans,” Wisch said.

The modification of the injunction came in response to a Ninth Circuit ruling on an appeal to Watson’s decision earlier this month.

While upholding the appeal, the Ninth Circuit held the injunction should not apply to the Trump administration’s ability to study other vetting procedures.

Many analysts expect the Supreme Court to announce this week whether they will take up Trump’s appeal of both the Ninth Circuit and Fourth Circuit rulings that upheld lower court decisions preventing implementation of the travel ban.

With Watson’s modification allowing further study, many believe the justices will not feel pressure to remove the injunctions during deliberations should they decide to take up the case.